


There Goes Your Best Friend

by sungabraverday



Series: Little Poplin Paylor, President of Panem [2]
Category: Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: District 8, Gen, Reaping
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-30
Updated: 2013-01-30
Packaged: 2017-11-27 12:57:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/662245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sungabraverday/pseuds/sungabraverday
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Reaping claims Poplin Paylor's best friend, Cecelia Gage.</p>
            </blockquote>





	There Goes Your Best Friend

Things were slightly different from the audience of the Reaping, well out of the carefully measured lines of teenagers. Safe from being selected again, Poplin stood with Tuck at the back of the crowd. She squeezed Tuck's hand and wished that the odds would again be in favour of everyone she loved. They had been for several years, but both her brothers were eligible this year. So were some of her friends, the ones who hadn't yet turned twelve the year her name was pulled from the bowl.

It was a different person from the Capitol this year, but she was just as annoying as the last one, Poplin thought, and the one before that. She chirped and trilled her way through her lines, enunciating them as clearly as they always did. And then she reached the part that she alone of the people in the square was excited about - the Reaping. 

Her hand - tattooed with blue and gold stars and magnified for her audience on massive overhead screens - dipped into the bowl, and pulled out a single slip of white paper. She broke the seal on it with a dull knife left on the table expressly for the purpose. Her nails were too short to break it this, and the productions team probably thought that it added an extra bit of drama and flair.

"Cecelia Gage," she read out, and Poplin clutched at Tuck. Of all the people, it had to be her best friend.

"No. They can't take her," she murmured, fingers clenching tight around his wrist. But no one stepped up to volunteer, so Cecelia walked up to the stage, taking her place without an ounce of visible fear. Her steady stance, hands on her hips, told the audience in all of Panem that she would not be cowed, and she would do her District proud. She held her chin up and smiled - no, smirked was more accurate. She may not have chosen it, but she was ready for it. 

Behind her, Weave smiled much more broadly, the kind of smile that confirmed to everyone watching that this was her girl, and they could expect to see a lot of her pretty soon. Weave intended to have a winner on her hands.

"She'll be fine," Tuck whispered in Poplin's ear. "If anyone can make it home, you know it's her. Weave thinks so too, you can tell, and if anyone knows, she does."

It was true, and Poplin knew it. But it still hurt to see her best friend standing on that stage, and to know that it might be the last time she ever saw her.


End file.
